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The Week That Was...

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The Week That Was...

Ian comments on the happenings in the world of cycling.

With a decision still not reached over his inclusion in the 2005 Tour de France, speculation continues to mount over a possible attempt at the World One-hour record by Lance Armstrong. The Discovery Channel team leader is said to be very interested in mounting an attempt at the record of 49.441km set by Chris Boardman on October 27, 2000 at the Manchester Velodrome. Speaking at the team?s recent Californian training camp, he told the assembled reporters that the Hour had become a ?serious consideration and I actually have in my possession the very first version of the track that I've been trying to do some testing on. (The Hour) is something that fascinates me; Johan and I have not really sat down and talked a lot about it, you know, what it takes to do it, where it fits in the year, which I think is one of the trickiest things. I spent a lot of time talking to Chris Carmichael and his team about it and the proper approach."

Armstrong added that, "I think the trick with the Hour Record is where you do it. Obviously we can do it in Manchester where it's been done several times. Ideally we would look for a high-altitude location and as we all know, there are not that many covered velodromes at altitude, so then you're at the mercy of the winds and the elements outside, or the temperature if it's not exactly in the summertime.? He also told our reporter that "We want to do it at altitude and it's just a question of where we go, what we find and if we build a velodrome to do it, and then take the velodrome down. And I think that's probably the most likely scenario as of today: Do we want to cover Colorado Springs and resurface it, or do go to Salt Lake City or somewhere like that and build a new velodrome?"

More information emerged last week by the New York Times who broke the news of the formation of the ?F-One? group ­- a team of experts and technicians from leading manufacturers who would be involved in any such attempt. Included in the group are Carmichael Training Systems, Nike, helmet-maker Giro, wheel maker Hed, Advanced Micro Devices, aerodynamicist Len Brownlie, Bicycle manufacturer Trek and wheel maker Bontrager. In 1996, Boardman, without UCI restraints, set what is known as the best hour performance. Racing around the Manchester Velodrome, he set a record distance of 56.375 km. It is uncertain which event attracts Armstrong or whether he is tempted to challenge them both.

Disgraced British cyclist David Millar last week had his appeal heard by the Court of Arbitration of Sport. The former Cofidis pro was appealing against his two-year ban imposed by British Cycling after he confessed to using EPO. "It was a long procedure looking into the legal position of my case. At the end, I was informed that a decision would be reached within two to four weeks but I don't have any idea what the outcome will be. I can't make any comment until I have received the verdict myself," said Millar on itsmillartime.com. Many in the sport feel that Millar was very fortunate to have only been handed a two-year ban and his popularity will have further decreased when it was announced that annual membership prices at British Cycling increased partly due to the costs of the legal actions of Millar.

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